Vanessa Redgrave and Gael Garcia Bernal give European kick to bland Hollywood story

One-time indie ace Gary Winick’s Letters to Juliet,
typical of his Hollywood efforts, features a down-the-middle,
batting-practice speed pitch just waiting for audiences to take a big
swing at it.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is a lowly but dedicated
fact-checker for The New Yorker dreaming of writing for the magazine
one day. She’s engaged to a passionate chef (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is
about to open a new restaurant just weeks before their marriage.

The
two take a pre-honeymoon trip to Verona, an all-work affair for him,
which leaves Sophie time to play around in the lives of others.

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She
hooks up with the secretaries of Juliet, a lonely-hearts collective
that pens responses to the lovelorn letters sent to star-crossed
lovers.

Sophie gets swept up in the half-a-century tale of unrequited
love between a British woman (Vanessa Redgrave, lovely and regal) and
the man she gave up for her proper life that produced her off-putting
grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), who might be the answer to
Sophie’s unwritten missive to Juliet. The recipe is pure whine and
cheese, but Winick has taste and sense enough to trust his key spices —
Redgrave and Bernal — to give the familiar stew a little kick.

With
Letters to Juliet, he’s attempting to instill a bit of European flavor
into this American dish. Grade: C-